Equestrian Sports in 1999

Thoroughbred Racing

United States

Canadian industrialist Frank Stronach, the head of MI Ventures, Inc., and Churchill Downs, Inc., dominated thoroughbred racing’s business headlines in 1999 with acquisitions that established both conglomerates as giants in the industry from coast to coast. Ventures, which purchased Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., in December 1998, signed an agreement in July 1999 to acquire Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla. In August the company signed letters of intent to purchase Golden Gate Fields near San Francisco, Remington Park in Oklahoma City, and Thistledown, outside Cleveland, Ohio. Churchill Downs, Inc., which already owned Ellis Park in Kentucky and a majority interest in Hoosier Park in Indiana, made acquisitions on both coasts: Calder Race Course in Florida and Hollywood Park in California.

Two television networks devoted to bringing coverage of the sport and the ability to wager into the comfort of people’s homes were launched in 1999. The Racing Network, a Pennsylvania-based partnership between Greenwood Racing, Inc., Ontario Jockey Club, and Ladbroke Racing, was launched in March. It was North America’s first provider of multitrack, multichannel, 24-hour, direct-to-home racing coverage. California-based Television Games Network (TVG) hit the airwaves in July. Backed in part by TV Guide, Inc., the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, and AT&T Broadband and Internet Services, TVG debuted with 12 hours of live racing coverage per day led by a three-member on-the-air team of analysts and handicapping authorities. The Racing Network and TVG debuts both came at a time when state and federal statutes regarding in-home wagering via the telephone and personal computers were under review.

The 1999 Breeders’ Cup championship, held on November 6 at Gulfstream Park, did little to clear up the muddled Horse of the Year picture, although it proved to be the most successful day financially in the history of U.S. thoroughbred racing. Total wagering on the 10-race card, including simulcast betting, came to an all-time North American single-day record of $100,336,230, eclipsing the previous mark of $91,338,477 set in 1998.

For the third straight year a colt entered the Belmont Stakes with a chance to become a Triple Crown winner, but the reformed claiming horse Charismatic met the same fate that befell Silver Charm in 1997 and Real Quiet in 1998. Charismatic, winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, made a gallant bid but finished third in the grueling 2.4-km (1-mi) Belmont after running the final eighth of a mile on a fractured left foreleg. He was retired to stud in July, as was Silver Charm. Victory Gallop, who had thwarted Real Quiet’s Triple Crown bid by a nose in the Belmont, was retired in August after injuring his left foreleg.

Arlington International Racecourse, near Chicago, announced it would resume operations in 2000 after closing down in October 1997, assuring the return of the world-renowned Arlington Million. Favourable legislation passed by the Illinois legislature in May paved the way for track owner Richard L. Duchossois to reopen the $200 million showplace.

In June D. Wayne Lukas became the first trainer to reach the $200 million plateau in career purse earnings. Lukas was the top money-winning trainer of all time, with nearly double the earnings of Charlie Whittingham (seeObituaries), who ranked second on the list. Lukas, who had trained 21 individual Eclipse Award winners and saddled 12 winners of Triple Crown events, was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in August, along with jockey Russell Baze, winner of 400 or more races for a record seven years in succession. Trainer Dale Baird, who was based at Mountaineer Park in Chester, W.Va., saddled his 8,000th career winner on July 22, which made him by a wide margin the most successful trainer in the history of thoroughbred racing in number of wins.

Two of the most successful jockeys of all time retired in 1999. Julie Krone, the sport’s most successful female rider with more than 3,540 victories, including the 1993 Belmont Stakes aboard Colonial Affair, and $81 million in purse earnings, bid adieu to the sport in April. David Gall, age 57, who spent the majority of his career riding at minor tracks in downstate Illinois, ended a 43-year career in September, ranked as the fourth winningest rider of all time. His career total of 7,391 victories was surpassed by only the great Bill Shoemaker and the still-active Laffit Pincay, Jr., and Pat Day. Another giant in the industry, Paul Mellon, died February 1 in Virginia at the age of 91 (seeObituaries).

Pincay, a native of Panama who came to the U.S. to ride in 1966, became racing’s all-time leading jockey on December 10 at Hollywood Park, Calif., when he rode the 8,834th winner of his career in the sixth race aboard the horse Irish Nip. Pincay broke the record of 8,833 wins held by Shoemaker, a record that had stood for 29 years.

Secretariat, the 1973 American Triple Crown winner, was honoured by ESPN as the 35th greatest North American athlete of the 20th century. Other thoroughbreds making the list included the legendary Man o’ War (84th) and 1948 Triple Crown champion, Citation (97th).

International

Godolphin, the stable that held the cream of the horses owned by the Maktoum family of the United Arab Emirates, continued to dominate European thoroughbred racing in 1999, gaining nine Group 1 victories in Britain, three in Italy, and two each in France and Ireland. Godolphin bracketed its 18 Group 1 successes in Europe with the victory of Almutawakel in the Dubayy World Cup in March and of Daylami in the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the U.S. in November.

Almutawakel’s defeat of the challengers Malek and Victory Gallop gave Godolphin its first victory in the world’s richest race, the Dubayy World Cup, which would be even richer in 2000, with a 20% increase to a gross prize of $6 million. Two other races on the same program were increased to $2 million. There were almost no comparable prizes anywhere in the world in the early months of the year.

Hong Kong added the world’s richest five-furlong sprint as the fourth race on its International Day at Sha Tin in December. Singapore, where the new course at Kranji opened on September 25, was scheduled to introduce the Singapore Airlines International Cup, with a total value of about $1,805,000, on March 4, 2000. The Hong Kong Cup was the last of nine races in the first Emirates World Series Racing Championship. The new Singapore race would be one of several additions to that competition, of which Daylami was the first overall winner.

In Cape Town an outbreak of African horse sickness in the region, the one area of southern Africa that previously had been clear of this deadly disease, halted all plans for an international race. Horse Chestnut, winner of seven of his eight races and hailed as the best horse produced in South Africa in many years, was sent to the U.S. An international campaign was planned once he had recovered from the lengthy quarantine period.

Godolphin-owned Central Park, which finished fourth in the Dubayy World Cup, had been used as a pacemaker more than once. He was sent to Australia in October to act as work leader for Kayf Tara, which had repeated his successes of the previous year in the Ascot Gold Cup and Irish St. Leger, in preparation for the 1999 Melbourne Cup. Kayf Tara injured a tendon, however, and Central Park replaced him. Central Park was not caught until 27 m (30 yd) from home, and only Rogan Josh, which beat him by a neck, prevented a 50–1 shock. Another two British horses were 5th and 12th in the field of 24.

Rogan Josh was the 11th Melbourne Cup winner trained by Bart Cummings. His first had been in 1965 but as a boy Cummings had also looked after Comic Court, which was trained by his father to win the 1950 Cup. The New Zealand filly Sunline beat Tie the Knot in the BMW Cox Plate, the Southern Hemisphere’s richest weight-for-age race. Irish-trained Make No Mistake finished eighth.

Godolphin was not uniformly successful. An attempt to turn the winter training on the dirt in Dubayy to advantage in the U.S. in May was abandoned after just one win in a dozen tries. Worldly Manner ran in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, but he and the other expensive American purchases made by the stable the previous autumn soon vanished from view. Godolphin also established the former Newmarket trainer David Loder with a stable of two-year-olds at the disused Evry racecourse, near Paris. The first season yielded just two Group 3 winners, one each in France and England, but was described as an experiment.

European two-year-old racing was dominated by the Irish-based Aidan O’Brien, who collected 14 Group wins from 10 individuals, all colts. Three of his five Group 1 victories were in France, and one each was in England and Ireland. His best colt, Fasliyev, winner of two of those five races, injured himself in October and was immediately retired to Coolmore Stud, O’Brien’s principal supporter and, with its subsidiaries in the U.S. and Australia, the biggest stallion enterprise in the world.

As in 1997, the winner of the Prix du Jockey-Club, Montjeu, went on to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. El Condor Pasa, the 1998 Japan Cup winner, which arrived in France in April but remained in the control of his Japanese trainer, made a heroic attempt to lead throughout in the Arc but was caught by Montjeu close to home and beaten by half a length. Montjeu also won the Irish Derby by an easy five lengths. He ended the season with a disappointing fourth in the Japan Cup, won by the 1998 Japanese Derby winner, Special Week, from the Hong Kong–trained outsider Indigenous.

Harness Racing

A three-year-old trotter took possession of harness racing in 1999, winning the admiration of horsemen and fans everywhere. Self Possessed, driven by Mike Lachance, trotted the fastest race mile ever when he covered the distance in 1:513/5 to win the $1 million Hambletonian at the Meadowlands in New Jersey in early August. His margin of 51/2 lengths was one of the greatest in the 74 years of Hambletonian history. In races before and after the Hambletonian, Self Possessed flashed speed that trotting devotees had never seen before, routinely making times that would have been unthinkable two decades earlier.

Unfortunately, Self Possessed’s season in the sun was all too brief, as he was retired at the end of the racing season to begin breeding duties. His sire, Victory Dream, had won the Hambletonian in 1994 and began his breeding career with great promise, but he was felled by fertility problems and illness and did not get a single mare in foal in 1999. Therefore, Self Possessed was thought to be more valuable in the breeding shed than on the track.

One enduring champion that raced yet another season was Moni Maker, probably the most beloved trotter in the world. She had dazzled fans on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean starting as a four-year-old in 1997. Her 1999 campaign, however, was a reminder that there was no such thing as a sure thing in racing.

Moni Maker began the year brilliantly, winning France’s grueling Prix d’Amerique, the first American-owned horse to win that winter classic in 25 years. She was the defending champion in Sweden’s Elitlopp (“Elite Race”) in late May and trotted two courageous heats but was no match for the victor, Remington Crown. In her first race back in the U.S., Moni Maker became unsteady after half a mile, and driver Wally Hennessey eased her out of the pack. She finished the mile but was in great distress afterward as a result of heart arrhythmia. Moni Maker took a break while trainer Jimmy Takter tested her fitness to return to racing, and in the autumn she resumed her winning ways.

Harness racing got its second pacing Triple Crown winner in three years in 1999 as Blissfull Hall captured the three legs and a $250,000 bonus check. Blissfull Hall began his streak in early September by winning the Cane Pace at Freehold Raceway in New Jersey, then took the Little Brown Jug in Delaware, Ohio, and grabbed the crown by winning the Messenger Stakes at the Meadows near Pittsburgh, Pa., in mid-October. Blissfull Hall was owned by Daniel Plouffe of Quebec, trained by Ben Wallace, and driven by Ron Pierce. Pierce had won the Cane Pace and Little Brown Jug in 1998 with Shady Character but lost the Triple Crown when he was defeated in the Messenger Stakes. He was able to use Blissfull Hall’s exceptional high speed to humble his foes in the 1999 Triple Crown tests.

Blissfull Hall peaked as the early-season leader among three-year-old pacers, The Panderosa, was encountering problems. The Panderosa was the dominant force in his class in June and July, winning the $1 million North America Cup and then the $1 million Meadowlands Pace. Observers were beginning to think that The Panderosa could become one of harness racing’s all-time greats, but he broke stride in several important races in August and September, losing much of his lustre.

In New Zealand, Our Sir Vancelot made history in March by becoming the only horse to have won the prestigious Inter-Dominion pacing championship in three consecutive years. In his victory for trainer-driver Brian Hancock, the eight-year-old pushed his earnings past $2 million.

Steeplechasing

See More Business, blinkered for the first time, produced a 16–1 surprise in the 1999 Cheltenham Gold Cup, but the star of Anglo-Irish jumping was Istabraq, winning his second Champion Hurdle and second Irish Champion Hurdle. Another triumph for his young trainer, Aidan O’Brien, Istabraq had run 20 times over hurdles up to October 1999, winning 18 and finishing second twice.

Bobbyjo became the first Irish-trained winner of the English Grand National since 1975. Irish horses, however, had become very expensive, and British owners were buying an increasing number of jumpers in France, where the sport was heavily concentrated on young horses. One French jumper, Al Capone II, won the Prix La Haye Jousselin, a valuable nonhandicap chase, for the seventh consecutive year. It was his 25th career success.

Show Jumping and Dressage

Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil, the son of Nelson Pessoa, retained his World Cup show jumping championship on his father’s French-bred Gandini Baloubet du Rouet—usually known as Baloubet—at Göteborg, Swed., in April 1999.

The German quartet, which included its first woman member, American-born Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, defeated 13 other nations to win the European team show jumping championship at Hickstead, Eng., in August. The individual competition, however, went to Alexandra Ledermann on Rochet M. The French rider, bronze medalist at the 1996 Olympic Games, beat two Swiss rivals to become the first female victor since men’s and women’s titles were amalgamated in 1973.

Anky van Grunsven of The Netherlands rode the 16-year-old Gestion Bonfire to claim their fourth World Cup dressage championship at Dortmund, Ger., in April and added the European championship—in which they had finished second for the previous four years—at home in Arnhem two months later.

Polo

In the 1999 U.S. high-handicap season, played from January to April in Florida, Tim Gannon’s Outback, lining up Argentine players Adolfo Cambiaso and Bartolomé Castagnola, captured the United States Polo Association (USPA) Gold Cup and the U.S. Open, defeating Isla Carroll (led by Mexican brothers Memo and Carlos Gracida) and Pony Express (with brothers Bautista and Gonzalo Heguy) in the respective finals. A substitute Isla Carroll team (with cousins Ignacio and Bautista Heguy) downed Grants Farm to win the Gold Cup of the Americas in a decisive encounter played simultaneously with the USPA Gold Cup final.

In the English season, played from May to July, Kerry Packer’s Ellerston, which outclassed Pommery and the Prince of Brunei’s Jerudong Park quartet in the respective finals, won the Prince of Wales Trophy and the Queen’s Cup. Ellerston’s playmaker and top scorer, Cambiaso—considered by many the best active player in the world—was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Surprisingly, Pommery (John Manconi, Henry Brett, Juan Bollini, and Alejandro Díaz Alberdi) took revenge, downing Ellerston to obtain the Gold Cup for the first time. Cambiaso shone again in the Spanish season, held in Sotogrande, Spain, leading Outback in its Silver and Gold Cup triumphs. With excellent performances by Cambiaso, Ellerstina also secured the Player’s and Hurlingham opens.

There were many surprises in the Argentine Open championship—the most important in the world—as the favourites, Indios Chapaleufú I and Ellerstina, which had won titles five and three times, respectively, were eliminated in the semifinals. Indios Chapaleufú II, comprising the three brothers Alberto, Jr., Ignacio, and Eduardo Heguy and Milo Fernández Araujo, beat La Cañada in the final to become champion for the second time. Gonzalo Pieres, one of the best-ever polo figures, announced his definitive retirement from high-handicap tournaments.

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